The Merchant of Venice is often regarded as one of Shakespeare’s problem plays, open to many interpretations. It is sometimes played as unremittingly dark and cynical, with Bassanio’s interest in Portia played as purely financial. It is certainly possible to play it that way, but in this production I have tried to pick out the lightness, comedy and romance of the play as a contrast to the much darker plot of Antonio, Shylock and the Bond.
One of the most intriguing elements of the play is every character has a flaw: Bassanio is profligate, the otherwise amiable Gratiano and his friends are abusive towards Shylock. Jessica is disloyal to her father and to her faith, and the measured Portia is extreme in the punishment she metes out to Shylock in the courtroom. Yet all these characters also show deep friendships, warmth, wit, loyalty and generosity, and that for me is what makes them convincing. The play constantly raises questions too…why for example is Antonio prepared to risk his life for Bassanio? Is he perhaps in love with him? Does Bassanio know? And if so, how should we play the happy resolution?
Another thorny issue is the question of anti-Semitism in the play. The Christian characters are vicious towards Shylock on the grounds of his faith and his charging of interest. But they do not look good or likeable in doing so, and Shakespeare is careful to give Shylock some of his most dignified and impassioned speeches. Shylock is treated appallingly by the Christians, taunted and humiliated. He loses his money, he loses his daughter, and in a society where Jews were ghettoised, locked in at night, forbidden to own land and barred certain professions, usury was often the only means of making a living. Shylock is dogged in his pursuit of his pound of flesh, but rather than merely being a heartless villain he is driven to revenge, maddened by grief, loss and the hatred that is habitually flung at him. By the end of the play, and his forced conversion he is a broken man, and I hope, a sympathetic figure.
A little sidelight: around 1597, when Shakespeare wrote The Merchant of Venice, he began a love affair with one of Queen Elizabeth’s court musicians, Emilia Bassano. Her family, Venetian Jews, had fled to England, and she later converted to Christianity. It seems likely that she was in Shakespeare’s mind when he named Bassanio in The Merchant of Venice, (and also Emilia in his other Venetian play Othello), and she very possibly gave Shakespeare all the information he needed about Venetian society, the merchants and money-lenders on the Rialto, the geography of the city, the judicial system and so on. It is thought that she is probably the “Dark Lady” of the sonnets; perhaps she even inspired the character of Jessica…who knows. But it also seems to imply that Shakespeare was not anti-Semitic...
Enjoy the play – I hope there’ll be lots to argue about!
